[Home treatment of patients with pancreatic fistula]

Hospital-at-home (HaH) has been previously described as a useful model to shorten length of hospital stay. Nevertheless, few experiences have been reported on the effectiveness of this scheme in patients with postoperative complications. We described the results of home management of patients with pancreatic fistula.

A retrospective analysis was performed on the clinical data more six patients with postoperative pancreatic fistula attended in our hospital-at-home unit.

All patients were male with ages ranging from 42 to 72 years (mean 59). The average hospital stay was 53 days (range 27 to 91). All patients, but one, presented pancreatic drainage more than 100 mL at the time of HaH admission. During HaH period hospital level treatments such as complex cures, intraabdominal lavages, specific laboratory tests, intravenous antimicrobial therapy and CT scanning were performed. The average time to closure of fistula was 93 days, of which 38 (41%) days were spent at home. At the end of HaH period all patients recovered and expressed a high degree of satisfaction.

Our data suggest that hospital-at-home is an effective model to shorten length of hospital stay in selected patients with postoperative pancreatic fistulas.